Indonesian films regain fame

Indonesian films regain fame

Joko E.H. Anwar, Contributor, Jakarta

Anyone who has not been living under a rock for the past two
years should realize the local film industry has begun to
reemerge.

While local audiences are grateful finally to be able to watch
a movie in their native language that takes place in locations
they are familiar with, it is the filmmakers who are really
celebrating.

After a decade of regulations and non-support from film
exhibitors, which helped kill the industry, local filmmakers can
now be creators again.

It may seem premature to announce that the local film industry
has been revived, but it is definitely timely to inform the world
about the existence of Indonesian films.

The Indonesian Film Festival (IFFEST) 2002 in Melbourne --
which is scheduled to be held from Oct. 1 to Oct. 7 -- is a good
opportunity for Indonesian filmmakers to tell foreign film
audiences the good news.

It is ironic, however, that this festival is being held in
Australia rather than at home. The last time the festival was
staged was in 1992, shortly after the local film industry totally
collapsed.

IFFEST 2002 is organized by the non-profit organization Sinema
Entertainment. It is truly a boon for local filmmakers, who have
been waiting to be recognized not only by audiences domestically
but also abroad.

"The time has arrived to tell the world (of our existence),"
local director Harry Suharyadi told The Jakarta Post.

Director Nia Dinata, 32, whose big screen debut Ca Bau Kan is
scheduled to open the festival, articulated local filmmakers'
gratefulness for the event.

"There have been many foreign movie festivals here, French,
British, you name it. Now it's our turn to have our films
showcased abroad," Nia said.

The festival, which this year takes the theme "Beyond
Tradition: Scenes of the New Generation", is scheduled to present
10 recent feature films, 13 shorts and four documentaries.

The event will also feature a number of shorts made by
Indonesian students who live in Australia. The shorts will be
competing for prizes.

Some of the screenings will be attended by the filmmakers and
actors, and there will also be several discussions on the
Indonesian film industry.

The mission of the festival, according to the organizer, is to
introduce Indonesian films to the international market. This
could help local filmmakers find foreign distributors for their
movies.

Because the newly revitalized Indonesian film industry is
still in its infancy, a fixed system to help filmmakers market
their movies has yet to be established. Currently, local
filmmakers not only produce their movies, but also have to
distribute the films themselves.

However, because IFFEST 2002 will also screen a number of
entries that would seem to be ineligible for this type of
festival, the event could fail in its mission.

The festival is scheduled to show several highly experimental
short videos that seem to have much in common with typical films
and videos made by local guerrilla filmmakers: outrageous ideas
without competent filmmaking skills.

However, there are quite a few much more promising entries.
Riri Riza's Eliana, Eliana -- which has received critical acclaim
here and abroad -- should give international audiences faith in
Indonesian filmmakers.

The filmmakers also hope this event will help the outside
world get to know Indonesia a little better, through several of
the themes explored in the movies to be screened.

"There have been bad things said about this country abroad.
These movies should reflect what the situation really is in
present-day Indonesia," Harry said.

The films scheduled to be shown do have a number of different
themes. There is the clash between traditional and modern values
in Eliana, Eliana, nationalism in Bendera (The Flag) and
modern teen romance in Ada Apa dengan Cinta? (What's Up with
Cinta?), to name just a few.

The documentaries to be screened, however, while showing that
freedom of expression has improved since the fall of former
president Soeharto, should also confirm the country's grim
record.

All four documentaries scheduled for the festival explore
human rights abuses in the country. One of the documentaries,
titled Mass Grave: Digging up the Cruelties of Indonesian's
Forgotten Barbarism, tells the horrifying story of the reburial
of 26 victims of a 1965 massacre.

However, the sheer variety found in recent Indonesian movies
should be taken as a sign that the local film scene is heading in
a positive creative direction.